A nightclub operator caught laundering drug money through a Seattle club has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.

Convicted by a jury in April, Steven Thomas and his supporters continue to claim he was entrapped during an overzealous investigation and prosecution.

Thomas, 40, argued at trial that he’d been set up by a former associate who’d gone to work for federal investigators as an informant. A four-day trial ended with Thomas convicted on four or the five counts he faced.

All of the charges stemmed from a joint investigation into Thomas, during which he offered to launder drug money for two undercover agents. Thomas also tried to obtain assault rifles for Mexican cartel honchos he meant to impress.

Facing a request from prosecutors for a 20-year prison term, Thomas argued for the minimum term – 10 years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour sentenced Thomas.

U.S. Attorney for Western Washington Annette Hayes described Thomas as a brazen braggart who planned to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine around the Northwest.

“While he plotted assaults and ways to trade guns for drugs, he didn’t know law enforcement was listening to every word,” Hayes said in a statement. “Now instead of enriching himself at the expense of public safety, he will pay his debt to society by serving time in prison.”

To his supporters, Thomas is a “good man,” a businessman who was duped by an informant with a vendetta. Raised by missionary parents in Bellevue, Thomas graduated from the University of Washington before enrolling in the Army Reserves.

He and his brother opened a Bellevue club – Sky Ultra Lounge – in 2012, only to see it shuttered because of a lease dispute. Thomas, an Olympia resident, planned to open Ice Nightclub at 332 Fifth Avenue North, the former home of several notoriously rowdy clubs.

“Mr. Thomas was trying hard to start and operate a legitimate nightclub, not a ‘front’ for illegal activities,” defense attorney Scott Engelhard said in court papers. “Mr. Thomas was a legitimate business person who despite his good faith efforts ran into financial difficulties with his new club and gave into the temptation to illegally finance his project.”

Caught on tape by investigators, though, Thomas told a different story.

“In recorded conversations, (Thomas) constantly bragged that he was the leader of his drug organization,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerrod Patterson told the court. “He identifies himself as a ‘gangster,’ and refers to the (informant) as his ‘gangster’s assistant.’

“At one point, he bragged to the (informant) that, in reference to criminal activity, ‘I haven't done anything else for two decades.’”

In court papers, Patterson described Thomas as an unsuccessful but unrepentant would-be drug trafficker who paid a federal agent to “tune up” an attorney.

Protests from his family and friends aside, Thomas was recorded bragging about violence and graft, as well as about having sex with children while traveling abroad, Patterson said in court papers. The prosecutor went on to claim that investigators found child pornography on a computer Thomas used.

Thomas was previously sentenced to two years in state prison for theft. A convicted felon, he was not allowed to possess the guns he was seen with during the investigation. Nine years ago, he was convicted of participating in a large marijuana distribution ring.

Patterson described Thomas as a career criminal who had, until now, escaped serious prison time.

“Put simply, this is a defendant who is capable of anything,” Patterson said in court papers. “He represents a significant risk to the safety of any community he resides in, and has shown no ability or interest in learning from past mistakes. “

Writing the court, Patterson, who prosecuted the case alongside Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Manheim, said Thomas’ primary aim with Ice Nightclub was to get drugs to make money.

Thomas was caught on tape explaining how the club could launder drug money. He also aimed to get into drug trafficking on his own – the rifles he hoped to send to Mexico were meant to foster relationships with cocaine and methamphetamine suppliers.

In recorded conversations, Thomas was dismissive about the club’s business value. He told undercover investigators it was a means to an end – drug money.

“When the club opens, the club makes so much (expletive) cash, I just need to get it open,” Thomas said in a rambling statement. “Because I'll jack everything else. I can jack the (expletive) tax money. I can jack all of that (expletive) which -- which is all (expletive) that I would normally have to pay if I wanted it to be legit, but I’ll just (expletive) whatever.

“Nobody -- nobody will get paid. I can run the club into the ground in three months and get (expletive) hundred (expletive) grand back out in cash.”

Approached by the informant about a guns-for-meth deal with a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent posing as an outlaw biker, Thomas sent his “guys” – Ivan Maldonado-Duran and Octavio Maldonado – to Los Angeles to make a trade. An undercover agent met the men, who called Thomas to finalize the Oct. 22, 2013, deal.

Thomas and the Maldonado brothers weren’t able to finalize the deal because the undercover agent wouldn’t sell guns to them. Thomas then told the informant to buy the rifles at gun shows using fake identification.

In a series of drug seizures that followed, investigators confiscated about six pounds of methamphetamine tied to Thomas. Thomas also laundered nine five-figure transactions for undercover agents posing as drug traffickers who needed to legitimize their drug proceeds. The transactions took place between October 2013 and March 2014.

The investigation took a strange turn in February 2014, when Thomas offered to pay an undercover agent to “tune up” an attorney representing a man who’d sued him. Agents clued the attorney into the investigation and used stage makeup to fake an attack.

Searching Thomas’ home on March 27, 2014, agents found a loaded Glock 9 mm pistol next to his bed, as well as cocaine, 14 cell phones and evidence of a previous marijuana grow.

At sentencing, prosecutors offered up a list of offenses Thomas is alleged to have mentioned in recorded conversations. Beyond sex tourism, Patterson claimed Thomas admitted to a series of frauds as well as paying a homeless man to destroy a car parked in Thomas’ parking spot.

Engelhard, the defense attorney, said his client was targeted by federal investigators after the informant told his handlers that Thomas was running cartel operations in the Northwest. The 16-month investigation that followed showed that to be a plain lie – Thomas struggled to find the drugs or financing for his club.

The defense attorney also dismissed his client’s statements about other, uncharged crimes as “grandiose claims” meant to impress the undercover agents.

“If the claims … were true, the lengthy and costly investigation by the government would have uncovered something to corroborate these witnesses – individuals who gained so much by blaming Mr. Thomas for everything they thought they could get away with,” Engelhard said in court papers.

Engelhard cast the prosecution as an effort to justify the time and expense put into investigating Thomas.

Patterson dismissed Thomas’ entrapment claim while faulting him for failing to take responsibility for his scheme.

“Even now, after a jury found him guilty on gun, drugs, and money laundering charges, he dodges and weaves, finding a vast network of other individuals conspiring to set him up,” Patterson said in court papers.

“This is nonsense. If he is unable to take responsibility for what he has done, it falls to the court to do it for him.”

In a statement Tuesday, Brad Bench, special agent in charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Seattle investigations division, said criminals like Thomas who try to hide behind legitimate businesses will still “be the ones paying the price.”

“The sentencing of this defendant sends a clear message that law enforcement will not tolerate the actions of those who use the cover of legitimate business to conceal cash obtained from drug trafficking and associated acts of violence in order to bring dangerous narcotics into our communities,” Bench said.

Currently jailed, Thomas is expected to be transferred to Bureau of Prisons custody in coming weeks. An appeal is expected.

Both Maldonado brothers have pleaded guilty to related charges. Neither has been sentenced.